Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 14 verses 3 through 10:
3 While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4But some were there who said to one another in anger, ‘Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.’ And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’
10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.
Why the hostility?
Why the antipathy?
Was it because the one with the alabaster jar was a woman?
Is that the hidden reason why so many were so offended by her actions?
And what of Judas? Why his betrayal?
What about his quest for the perfect blinds him to the good?
How could he allow his concern for the care of poor turn so twisted?
Why his contempt? Why his secrecy?
What about this woman, and her kindness set Judas off in such contempt?
There is more than meets the eye here. There is more to Judas than we can know or understand.
There is more to us than we often know or understand.
What we do know is that Judas tried to betray Jesus with a kiss.
But Jesus told him to do what he came to do.
Rev. Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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